


Fine Print

by Aka_Mel



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Annabeth Chase & Thalia Grace Friendship, F/M, Origin Story, Thalia x Luke, Writing the past, may expand to other characters depending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-22 21:43:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14317770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aka_Mel/pseuds/Aka_Mel
Summary: Writings about favorite characters that Riordan never went into detail with and I wondered how it felt for them to deal with some of the struggles they went through.The first set of stories revolves around Thalia, when she's young and on the run, and later in life when she thinks she has everything figured out as a Huntress but the past still haunts her.





	Fine Print

            I stuck my spear into the pot-bellied monster and he squealed just before poofing into a cloud of dust. My spear gave me distance so I just had to close my eyes and shut my lips together to keep from it getting down my lungs. But Annabeth hadn’t been so lucky. She had been right below the monster just before I came in and stopped him from turning her to jam, she breathed in a deep amount of monster dust and coughed hard. Her cough shook with the phlegm clogging her throat.

            I gasped, relaxing my muscles. I put down my spear and shield but I tensed, about to run to her but Luke got there before me.

            “Annabeth!” he cried out. He rushed to her from who knew where. The area felt silent so he must have slain the last monster that had ambushed us. He knelt by her and had a hand on her shoulder and the other patting her back as she rode her coughs out. “Did you have to kill that monster right next to her?” he complained.

            I bristled, feeling my veins jolt and my hair shifting and the hairs on my arms stood up on ends. I glared. _Thanks for saving her, Thalia_ , would that have been too much to ask? Instead I said, “Was I supposed to wait for a better time, Luke? The he—ck,” I corrected myself, children in the room, “was I supposed to do?!”

            “You should have got the thing to follow you away from Annabeth, she’s already sick enough—“ He stopped to pat her back again as she breathed and coughed even more. “Hey, it’s okay, Annabeth, just breathe.”

            “Luke, she was screaming her head off. Nothing was going to pay more attention to me—“

            “Thalia! This is Annabeth, we’re talking about. You have to be more careful!”

            “I did the best I could, Luke! What do you want from me?”

            “I—“ he faltered, “I just…”

            “Don’t…fight,” Annabeth breathed haggardly and coughed. Hearing her like that made me swallow any other argument I may have had. I bit my lip and looked at the ground in shame. We couldn’t keep this up and when I lifted my eyes to look at Luke his eyes mirrored my own, worry.

            I snapped my head around, shrunk my spear, and tapped on Aegis so that the Medusa face disappeared and they were just my silver bracelets and I pocketed my staff turned mace. I stormed away while shouting, “I’ll get the water!” I rushed down the alley, made a right, and sprinted down the dark way into an empty row of boxed houses. I wasn’t nearly as winded as I could have been after a fight, the adrenaline still in my veins and pumping my heart. I itched to do something with it so I sprinted to our “home.”

            We never stayed long in one place for long and had to construct hasty housing every new place we went. Sometimes we would get lucky and find an empty house or factory or building we could squat in but tonight we weren’t that lucky. Though, I couldn’t complain since we had a roof over our heads, even if it was cardboard and leaking with rainwater pittering down all day today and seeping through. We had found blankets and sheets to sit on and huddle into and in one corner of our cardboard house we had put a blanket there to soak in the water so it didn’t puddle as much. But it had been knocked over from the monster attack and I stopped a few yards away to see the damage. The box knocked and ripped and our small corner of blankets and “stuff” were scattered out from the roof of the box. I rushed through, my heart clenching. I dropped into the books and papers and newspaper clippings that Annabeth begged to keep. I pulled and didn’t care if I ripped blankets. I heard the clatter of metal dropped from the blanket and scrambled for the water container but my heart dropped feeling its weight before I even looked at it. I already knew but slowly I brought the water bottle close and felt so much rage and frustration and sorrow at its open top. Like that’s how my life was. An open container that could tip over at any moment and I’d be left with nothing if something so much as tapped me. _Why did we have to be demigods_. Why did I have to have a father like Zeus of all of them? Why couldn’t I help Annabeth? Why couldn’t I have saved him too… Why was I such a failure?

            “Hey,” a friendly voice shocked me awake.

            My muscles hard wired to attack and ask questions later. I turned and went to smash the water bottle at whoever it was when that person screamed, jumped back and fell on his rear and flailed their… _hooves_ into the air??

            I held my position, water bottle held above my head like a weapon. I felt pretty silly when I thought about it but I was more concerned by the half boy, half goat kid in front of me, cowering with his arms up and his Rastafarian hat quivering as much as him.

            “Don’t hurt me! I’m here to help!” he cried out.

            “Is this some new monster trick? Come to use my sense of pity so you can knock me out and eat me?! Well it won’t work!” I raised my body to get the momentum to attack when Luke came over and cried out for me to stop, Annabeth in his arms. I held again.

            Annabeth coughed and whispered, I could barely hear her, “He’s a satyr, don’t hurt him.”

            “Yes, please don’t hurt me!” the satyr begged.

            That was when I felt how hard I was heaving and how tense I was. I let it go and felt miserable. But I couldn’t give up yet; I brandished the water bottle menacingly again and demanded, “Who are you! And what do you want with us?”

            He panicked more and ducked further down if that were possible, but I didn’t know what satyrs could do so why not. I glared. It got the right effect because he started screaming, “My name is Grover Underwood! I’m a satyr from Camp Half-Blood and everyone thinks I’m a failure and I really, _really, really_ like a sweet tree nymph named Juniper and she thinks I’m sweet and I talk a lot when I’m nervous and –oh gods! Chiron and Mr. D sent me to find you three and take you to Camp Half-Blood where you’ll be safe! Please don’t hit me with that!”

            I blinked, letting down the water bottle since I didn’t think he was lying, not cowering like that at least. I looked up and caught Luke’s eyes and found the same wonder in them.

            “Camp Half-Blood?”

 

            We spent…like ten minutes rebuilding our cardboard house. Luke and I got Annabeth settled first in her blankets and newspapers. I ordered this Grover to just stay outside while we set ourselves up. He stood stock still like a toy soldier. 

            I put the blanket back in that dry corner and pushed her books back as well, covering it as much as I could. Then I restuck on the adverts and pictures and papers that Annabeth had collected and liked onto the walls of the box as best I could in the damp, the stickiness of the scotch tape fading.

Annabeth giggled.

“What’s so funny?” I asked. “We’re kind of in the pits of pittiest situations and you’re laughing?”

“Not laughing, I’m happy.” She picked up a book with an ancient ship on the front with a short single title I couldn’t read with the words jumping around like they were. I was always amazed how smart Annabeth was despite how dyslexic we all were. My mom blamed it for why she’d hit me, I wasn’t learning hard enough, she’d say. “You saved my books.”

            I made a face. I picked up a different book, another massive, thick thing and flapped it and it slapped wetly against itself. “Not all of them.”

            Annabeth giggled again. “Luke says that you can be mean sometimes.” I frowned. I did it so we could survive, I thought bitterly. “But I don’t think so. I think you act scary and mean because you love us.” She smiled, big and warm and I could almost forget for a second that we were being rained out in a cardboard box being chased by monsters and gorgons and trolls all the time.

            “Love’s a strong word, squirt,” I said as I ruffled her already ratty and knotted hair.

            She protested when I started noogying her but then Annabeth started a coughing fit again.

            Luke came over and fussed and felt her forehead, “She’s burning up.”

            “We’re already out of medicine. What else can we do?”

            “Here—“ Grover offered.

            “ _Not now_ ,” I growled.

            Luke looked over his shoulder and his eyes caught the thing in Grover’s fingers. “What is that?” he asked.

            “Ambrosia,” he offered. “I-It’ll help.” Then he bleated nervously.

            “Thalia, quit glaring,” Luke said as he tapped my arm.

            I relaxed a bit and didn’t realize how much I had been glaring until he mentioned it. My mom always complained I’d get wrinkles early from all my glaring and be an old woman and no man would want me. I scoffed at the thought.

            Luke took the offered piece of cracker, stared at it confused, and offered it to Annabeth to eat.

            “My throat’s too dry,” she complained.

            “Can you at least try?” he asked nicely.

            Annabeth looked up at me and I mimed biting down on an invisible pizza to calm her down. But instantly regretted thinking about pizza. My stomach grumbled.

            Annabeth took a bite when Grover said, “I have more if you guys want? But have only a few bites, otherwise you’ll get feverish.”

            Luke spat his mouthful out with a fearful look in his eyes and Annabeth paled but didn't spit. We were all thinking the same thing probably, why would this guy give us something that could kill us, we thought.

            I grabbed at this guy’s collar and shook him. “What in Hades is that supposed to mean?! She’s already sick! You trying to make her worse?!”

            “Langu—“ Luke tried but I just kept screaming.

            “The hell you trying to do to us, goat boy?!”

            “AH! Please don’t kill me! I was just trying to help!” he screamed.

            Luke tried to get me to put Grover down but I was too pissed. We were all yelling and being a totally wreck in general. It was good that no one was passing by, otherwise they’d call the cops.

 

            “So this Ambrosia stuff can heal us when we’re hurt but can’t fix Annabeth being sick?” I repeated.

            Grover shook his head up and down rapidly, looking like Shaggy, especially with all that hair. He had put on fake normal legs over top to hide when other vagabonds started returning to their boxes.

            “It’s the food of the gods, but as half gods yourselves you can have it and eat it in small doses to heal, but being half human it’ll burn you up from the inside too,” he answered nervously.

            Luke handed him back the bitten off piece him and Annabeth had had. “Okay. Lesson learned, don’t take food from strangers.”

            “I knew that,” Annabeth piped in. I ruffled her hair and got my fingers caught in a knot. It was a bit of a struggle to get back out but we managed it with minimal cries. But she was starting to look better at least.

            “So…you’re a satyr?” I started.

            “Dad says they’re half man on top and half goat on the bottom. But I thought you’d be bigger?” Annabeth commented.

            “Nah, this is how I look. Even the great god of the forests, Pan, isn’t much taller than me. Probably older though, I’ll be able to say that once I’ve found him.”

            “Is he lost?” Annabeth asked.

            “Yeah…kind of, everyone thinks he’s gone but I still believe. Oh! Wait! This isn’t what I wanted to say! Now that you’re not threatening my goatly life—I came here to tell you about Camp Half-Blood!”

            “You keep mentioning this camp? You some summer recruiter?” Luke said.

            “Well…yeah, I guess you could say that. A satyr’s job is to look for demigod children in danger or out in the wild, or both like you guys, and help them make it to Camp Half-Blood, a hidden camp in New York for half-blood kids. It was made by the gods years ago as a safe haven for all of their kids.”

            “You mean…” Luke spoke in awe. “We won’t be attacked by monsters anymore?”

            “Well…no.”

Luke’s expression fell and darkened. I sometimes saw Luke get these dark expressions on his face whenever you asked him about his dad or when Annabeth or I got hurt. Even my mom didn’t look that scary when she hit me. But I trusted Luke, plus, not like I could complain with my temper. “There are a couple of harpies that patrol the forests and stuff but you guys can clearly fight those off,” Grover laughed nervously, staring at Luke’s...golf club at his side. It may not have been as impressive as my spear, but to a weaponless and scared satyr I assumed it was menacing. Good. “And a monster or two will be dumb enough to cross into the camp but it’s generally a safe place, I promise! You’ll have a bunch of other demigod kids, even your _siblings_ —well uhm…” he stared at me and couldn’t hold it when he said, “Not so much you, you know, being a daughter of Zeus, and all.”

            “Is that such a big deal?” I asked.

            His eyes went as wide as dish plates. “Well… _yeah!_ You’re the kid of the _king of the gods!_ And if that wasn’t enough, you’re probably going to be the kid of the prophecy!”

            “The what now?”

            He gasped and slapped his hands over his mouth. “Uhm…never mind. I mean, Chiron and Mr. D can explain all of that—“

            “Who are Chiron and Mr. D?” Luke piped in.

            “Wasn’t Chiron a scary ferryman for the dead?” Annabeth asked.

            “No, that’s Charon,” he said the name and all I heard was _Sharon_ and now I was thinking of a little sweet, blonde lady from some perfect neighborhood ferrying people in some grim underground. “Chiron is the greatest trainer of heroes.”

            “Heroes,” Luke whispered.

            “A centaur!” Annabeth screamed.

            “Yeah! Exactly!” Grover whooped with her, arms in the air. “It’s great when his cousins come visit the camp! You guys will love it!”

            “Whoa, whoa,” I stopped him. “Who says we’re coming with you?”

            Grover jumped and meeped.

            “How have you survived this long?” I wondered out loud.

            “I-I’m very resourceful, thank you very much!” he bleated. “But why wouldn’t you come?”

            “Uhhh, because we don’t know you. Because without those fake legs you essentially look like a monster to me—“

            He bleated loudly, offended I think.

            “And how is going to a camp any different from what we’re doing now if monsters are still going to come after us?”

            “Uhm…you’ll have weapons?”

            I pulled out my mace and flipped the unlock tab and my spear extended out.

            He screamed and I made it shrink to put it away again. “Oh,” he said in a defeated voice, but somehow got his flame back and continued, “You’ll have a never ending supply of food?” he tried. “Better than even the tastiest of tin cans out of a garbage.”

            I raised an eyebrow at him, confused.

            “Even pancakes with hot fudge syrup?” Annabeth asked.

            “Anything!”

            Annabeth whooped and Grover joined her again.

            This sounded like the start of some horror story though. A protected camp with food galore? Next he’ll say there was a friendly witch that handed out candy and soda.

            “I know this sounds out of the blue, but I promise I’m not lying. It’s the safest place for demigods even if monsters get in every now and then. At least you’ll have your brothers and sisters and kids just like you and even a _god_ to watch your backs.”

            “A god?”

            “Mr. D. He’s…being punished for various insults to Zeus and is head of the camp. What better guy to protect you though, right?”

            “Which one is he?” Annabeth asked.

            Grover coughed, “What?”

            “Which god is Mr. D?”  
            “Uhm…”

            My eyebrow went higher.

            “Dionysus,” he said, slowly, carefully.

            “Oh!” Annabeth said.

            “What? Which one is he?” Luke asked her.

            “The god of fruity drinks!” she said cheerfully.

            I stared. There couldn’t be a god of _fruity drinks_. I tensed. _Wine_. I realized. He was the god of wine. I glared instead. Seriously, the god of drinking till you pass out was the guy watching over a bunch of ADHD and dyslexic kids from monsters. I knew from experience that adults on that stuff were utterly useless. Mom cradled that stuff more than she had ever hugged me.

            “He’s on probation! He only drinks diet coke now,” Grover tried. “So…? Do you want to go to Camp Half-Blood now?” He said, with the most nervous smile I’d ever seen. Even Annabeth could lie better than that.

            “Not gonna—“

            “We’ll think about it!” Luke said over me, looking at me meaningfully. I stared, he stared right back, not backing down. I guess we were going to talk about this later. I sighed.

            “No pressure!” Grover said. “Not like I traveled across the country to find you guys and not like Mr. D won’t skin my hide for not bringing in a kid from one of the Big Three, but you know…” He laughed nervously.

            “Is it really real?” Annabeth asked, pointing at his legs.

            “Yup!” he kicked off the fake legs and stretched in the enclosed space comfortably. “Go on, feel my fur, it’s pretty soft I have to say.”

            Luke nodded when Annabeth looked up and then at me, to which I cautiously nodded. Watching her like a hawk as he reached to pet the goat boy at his calves.

            “It is soft…and warm!” She giggled as she jumped on top of him. He oof-ed comically and even I had a hard time not laughing.

 

            Annabeth fell asleep on top of Grover’s shaggy legs and they both snored loudly. I felt bad for whoever had the pleasure of bunking with Annabeth.

            “I think we should go with Grover,” Luke said out of nowhere.

            I turned my head but realized that us leaning next to each other meant I was staring less than an inch away from his nose. I looked somewhere else as I said, “What?”

            “Just, hear me out, Thalia.”

            I sighed but didn’t say anything, watching the water not drying on the walls of our box.

            “I’m _tired_ of running. I’m tired of being scared all the time and endangering my mom.”

            I frowned. I couldn’t share the sentiment with my mother, she was one of the reasons I had run away and was living in a box, constantly in fear of my life. But the last bit, the on the run life wasn’t as cool as the movies made it out to be.

            “At least in this _camp_ , we’ll have real beds to sleep in and real roofs to protect us and even if monsters still get in…Thalia, there are _other_ kids like us! We could protect each other and—and it’s probably the closest thing we’ll have to a family again.”

            I didn’t know what to say to that. It sounded like a dream. I rested my chin on my arms and thought about it.

            “Yeah, a camp full of dyslexic and hyper kids all crushed together in bunk beds. Sounds as fun as a mosh pit.” Which they were, but Luke didn’t know that.

            “Thalia, I’m serious.”

            “So am I. Wouldn’t we all just be gathered easier for monster picking? How is that any better?”

            “What about Annabeth?”

            I gripped my leather jacket. I looked down at where Annabeth and Grover slept like a puppy pile and I felt my eyes sting. I bit my lip to keep from crying. No way was Luke going to see me cry.

            “We…we should at least get her there.”

            “I can get you all there and then I can—“

            “Don’t you dare say ‘leave.’” He sat up straight and I almost fell backwards without him to hold me up from my slouch. I was going to glare when he gripped my arm. “I won’t leave you, Thalia.”

            I glared anyway at him, not feeling the love and joy, “Even though you think I’m mean.”

            “I don’t actually think you’re mean to be mean, Thalia. I just…” he paused and dropped his hand. “It’s hard. When we first teamed up months ago, life was fun, we did whatever we wanted. But fighting _every day_ , never getting a real break, never getting a _bed_. We can’t keep this up, Thalia, especially Annabeth.”

            I didn’t trust this Camp Half-Blood but I thought I could trust Luke at least. So I didn’t argue and shook my head to tell him ‘yes.’ His face relaxed and he looked free all of a sudden. I didn’t think my opinion should have mattered so much. If we had to part ways after Camp Half-Blood I would have accepted that and moved on. But…Luke being relieved when I said yes, Luke _caring_ about all of us staying together, caring about me…it felt really nice. My face grew hotter when I realized it was hot and then the embarrassment made me get hotter and it wouldn’t stop.

            He didn’t seem to notice thankfully as he stretched, yawned and leaned back against Annabeth’s mini pile of books we were protecting with our body and shoved into the corner of the box house. He leaned back to sleep and whispered, “Thanks, Thalia.”

            I leaned back myself, a book digging in my back but I didn’t move because it was the best spot to lean on Luke’s shoulder. I crossed my arms and let my head rest on his shoulder, noticing the touch of him on my cheek and the warmth from it that made me feel calm and safe. “So, Annabeth says you love us?” he asked.

            “Shut up,” I told him and closed my eyes as if to sleep.  
            Luke chuckled. Later I heard Luke breathing in a slow rhythm and I fell asleep to the sound of that beat and the heat from his head lolling over onto the crown of mine and keeping me warm.

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to explore what it was like for Thalia when she was homeless and on the run, her life was a never ending trial until she settled with the Hunters of Artemis.  
> Another thing that I got curious about was her relationship with Luke, it was so vastly important for Luke's psyche that he lost Thalia because of the gods' carelessness and yet once she rises he does very little to acknowledge her and I wanted to delve and understand what they were both going through as the other changed.


End file.
